Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, two music-themed competition shows are airing with scenes of clapping and cheering audience members sitting side-by-side without face masks. But, are The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice really risking lives for the sake of entertainment?
The answer is no.
The Masked Singer
For Season 4 of The Masked Singer, audience shots were taken from previous seasons of the show.
A plan earlier this summer to record audience clips in an empty studio was scrapped – but according to the casting call, audience members were going to be paid up to $650 U.S. to sit in the empty studio and pretend to be watching the show. “You need to be available for 1 DAY of shooting reaction shots, PLUS take the provided Covid test (given same day),” it read. “You will not see the actual show.”
Episodes of The Masked Singer currently airing (Wednesday nights on CTV) use audience reaction shots from previous seasons. Wider shots of the studio audience seen on screen were added using CGI.
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Of course, viewers are not told that there is no live audience until the very end of the credits when this disclaimer flashes on the screen: “Due to health restrictions, visuals of audience featured in this episode included virtual shots as well as shots from past seasons.”
(For pre-pandemic seasons of The Masked Singer, audience chants and cheers – and reactions to the big reveals – were taped before any of the performers or panelists were on set. The audience is not even in the studio when the eliminated singer actually takes off their costume head.)
I Can See Your Voice
Similar trickery is used on the new show I Can See Your Voice.
It paid more than $1,000 U.S. each to people willing to quarantine in a hotel for a day and then sit in an empty studio and act out reactions. Those shots are combined with audience reaction shots from previous seasons of The Masked Singer to make it seem like there is a live audience on I Can See Your Voice.
During last week’s episode, eagle-eyed viewers noticed a digitally-added wide shot of the studio audience was in fact a mirror image of the same group of people.
The CGI-added audience on the left is a mirror image of the audience on the right. Fox
A disclaimer at the end of each episode points out: “Due to health restrictions, visuals of audience featured in this episode included pre-taped shots, as well as shots from other [Fox Alternative Entertainment] studio shows.”
So, what about the celebrities, hosts and contestants on The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice?
The Masked Singer panelists Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger are seated further apart in Season 4 than they were in previous seasons and host Nick Cannon is only close to the singers who are, of course, masked.
On I Can See Your Voice, the singers and celebrity panelists are spaced apart and host Ken Jeong keeps his distance from the contestants.
The Masked Singer airs on CTV, which is part of the same parent company as this website.